Removing race from school equation adds questions

Posted: Sunday, August 29, 1999

By Rick DunnLOCAL COLUMNIST

Last Tuesday's announcement that the Clarke County Board of Education has eliminated race as a factor in assigning new students has set the wheels to turning in the heads of lots of people. And, as we ponder this attempt to replace racial balance under the current assignment process known as controlled choice, all types of frightening thoughts surface.

One, will a community that claims to love its diversity now be viewed as attempting to resegregate its public school system? There is little possibility of implementing any of the proposed zoning plans without having racially identifiable schools. Thanks to defacto-segregation due to housing patterns, some elementary schools are going to be almost 100 percent black or white.

Personally, I think it is racist to imply that a black child can only learn when in the company of a white one. However, the separation of the two leads us to our second question. Are the schools housing mostly black and lower-income children going to be supplied at the same level of those populated by upper-income and white kids? One of the issues with school segregation in the Old South was that black children were not afforded the same new books, lab equipment, quality constructed schools and other resources possessed by their white counterparts. How will we monitor allocation of basic resources to make sure that history does not repeat itself?

Question No. 3 stems from current data indicating that low-income children tend to score poorly on standardized tests. Will the Clarke County Board of Education put additional funds into the schools with a high risk of failure to help those students succeed? In caving in to those who for whatever reason oppose controlled choice, the BOE cannot forget that its primary mission is to make sure every child in Clarke County receives a quality education and graduates are fully prepared to enter the workforce or post-secondary institutions.

Some parents expressed a fear that the better teachers would all attempt to be placed in schools that are racially identified as white. Again, personally, I don't think this will happen, but one never knows. So, question four is: How does this community make sure that the quality of classroom instruction is the same throughout the school system?

In addition to parental dissatisfaction with controlled choice, another reason the BOE wants to do away with the plan, which was designed to remove the burden of busing for desegregation totally off the backs of black children, is to save money. Transportation costs have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, bus drivers complain about being overworked and grossly underpaid. It is estimated the school system could save a million dollars by ending controlled choice. The question then becomes, how would the savings be utilized? Would we hire more counselors and teachers, give raises, invest in more student resources or provide a tax break?

Obviously, controlled choice is headed for extinction. But, before we bid farewell to the controversial school assignment plan, please be mindful that there will be controversy and questions surrounding its proposed replacement. Some of those questions will force us to examine racial motives and this community's commitment to equal and quality education for all her children.